Public can't afford golden parachutes

Tuesday

Feb 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Retired Delaware Valley School District Superintendent Candis Finan worked hard to achieve success. Her district's students have demonstrated it through academic achievement. Finan showed it by guiding the district through a major expansion and leading it to a higher standard of learning.

Retired Delaware Valley School District Superintendent Candis Finan worked hard to achieve success. Her district's students have demonstrated it through academic achievement. Finan showed it by guiding the district through a major expansion and leading it to a higher standard of learning.

But when even such a strong record culminates in a retirement package that resembles the "golden parachute" of corporate America, it leaves taxpayers reeling. DV's board approved a payout of more than $800,000 when Finan left the top post last year. Finan accrued this impressive sum through payments for unused vacation, sick and personal days going back 30 years. A self-described workaholic, she further feathered her retirement nest by taking only a single vacation day, no personal days and just two sick days since 2005. Her compensation for those days is at the current, top rate. And the payout comes on top of an already generous annual pension.

Decades ago, teachers and school administrators didn't make much. Taxpayers recognized their value and sweetened the pot by offering an excellent package of benefits, from health insurance to a strong retirement package. Public school employees who toiled in the trenches could be sure that, in the end, taxpayers would take care of them in retirement.

But school salaries have soared since those days. Public school salaries today are highly competitive with private sector. Teachers also receive guaranteed annual raises in "steps," for which they qualify by completing ongoing education. In recent years, teachers receiving annual raises on an already good salary have produced eye-popping hikes in school district budgets — and taxes. Nor have teachers lost any of those aforementioned benefits.

Finan's huge payout rankles not because she didn't earn it. It rankles because it's the public version of the private sector's executive golden parachutes. Corporate America has shed millions of workers in recent years while compensation for executives at the top has skyrocketed. Laid-off former employees, struggling low-wage and middle class workers both envy and resent such success. In the case of public employees like Finan, taxpayers bear the burden.

The DV board sensibly has revised the contract for Finan's replacement, capping the total number of accruable vacation days and adjusting reimbursement for unused sick and personal days by setting a fixed rate. School boards everywhere that haven't already must also address this looming problem. Policies that enable public school employees to accrue years, even decades' worth of vacation, sick pay and personal days can crush taxpayers who have to fork it all over at the end.

DV board members say they prepared for Finan's huge payout by setting aside the funds. But amid a lingering recession, in an area with persistent high unemployment, it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth.